A vehicle body structure for a two-track vehicle usually has side door sills which extend as hollow profile beams in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle and which delimit the bottom of a front door opening and of the rear door opening.
A generic vehicle body structure generally refers to a hollow profile beam configured, for instance, as a door sill with a hollow profile whose height between two opposite profile walls is reduced in the area of the rear door opening while the door-entry area is enlarged. For reinforcement purposes, it is common practice for such a hollow profile to have dividing elements in the crosswise direction that are at a distance from each other in the direction of the lengthwise extension of the hollow profile beam. Since the profile height varies in the direction of the lengthwise extension, it is necessary to stock a large number of different dividing elements that match the geometry of the appertaining profile height of the door sill, which is complicated in terms of assembly and production.
German patent application DE 10 2007 017 165 A1 discloses a door sill that is configured as a hollow profile beam and that—as seen in the vehicle crosswise direction—consists of a profile part on the inside and a profile part on the outside of the vehicle that are joined together at upper and lower flange connections. For purposes of increasing the crosswise stiffness of the door sill in case of a side impact, sheet metal reinforcement parts are provided that bridge the hollow space of the door sill.